BOOK REVIEW
JASON K. ALLEN’S
Letters to My Students A Book Review by D R A K E O S B O R N
Living in Exam Week Recently I have taken on the joyfully indomitable task of regular, weekly preaching. This was not my decision or my goal. As a young pastor with little experience, I joined the staff at a young and growing church. I was eager to wait my turn. No one predicted that the resignation of the founding pastor would create a pulpit-sized hole that God would call a freshlygraduated seminarian to fill. But with a keen awareness that the work of preaching calls for readiness in every season, I considered myself prepared when the congregation called. In many ways, I was, but I underestimated the work required. After graduation from seminary, it becomes easy for the young preacher to believe that a certain chapter of ministerial life has come to a close. “Study for four years, preach for 40”—and maybe go back for a terminal degree later. This is the mantra I led myself to believe. By God’s grace, my mantra could not sustain even a month of regular preaching. In my short time taking the pulpit, I’ve learned that to preach is to constantly mature, grow, work and, yes, to study. There are no “easy” sermons. Already feeling the strain of my enrollment in the classroom of experience, I breathed a heavy “amen” when I received Jason Allen’s new book, Letters to My Students, Volume 1: On Preaching and read the confirmation of my experience: “To be a preacher is to live perpetually in final exam week” (74). In this short volume, I found a refreshing and personal teacher to help me prepare for my weekly exams. Dr. Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, is well known for his work in the field of preaching. Besides having plenty of experience on
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the ground in various preaching contexts, he hosts the weekly podcast “Preaching and Preachers” and regularly takes the time to lecture and teach the students in his care. Allen shows in his new work that he is further devoted to remembering those unmemorable servants of God: all the faithful shepherds filling the pulpit week after week.
Clarity and Precision Allen sets up his book in three sections: “Preparing to be a Preacher,” “Preparing Your Sermon,” and “Growing in Your Preaching.” With this kind of outline, Allen shows intentionality in reaching a wide audience. This book could easily serve as a resource for the brand new preacher, the maturing preacher, and the seasoned preacher; yet the reason for this width does not lie in its expansiveness. The volume clocks in at less than 200 pages, hardly an exhaustive treatment on the topic of preaching. What the book lacks in scale, it more than makes up for in clarity and precision. Allen knows he is not the first preacher to write to other preachers. Rather, he stands in a long line of faithful expositors and pulpiteers willing to provide example and advice. He admits his main influence is Charles Spurgeon, a man renowned for his tireless preaching. Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students serves as the namesake for Letters to My Students, and it shows. When Spurgeon sat down to confer his own wisdom, he didn’t do so with a comprehensive textbook, he did so in a set of practical lectures. Allen’s wisdom shines in the same way; his text is full of refreshing brevity, honed precision, and crystal clarity.
